Hurricane hunting

[OntarioHunter]

Wanted to do some house painting today before leaving for Montana but was rained out ... in a big way. Wind blowing 30 mph and raining buckets. What the heck, I'm bored. Layered up with two Goretex jackets and Muck Boots, dusted off the old 870 beater bad weather gun, loaded up the dogs, and headed out to jump shoot the chain of sloughs where I shot several geese a couple of weeks ago. When I got there I decided to leave poor Puppy, my Fr Britt, in the Jimmy. Last time it took me two hours to clean the burrs and mud out of her fur. Anyway, she's not equipped for that weather and I forgot to pack her vest. Boy, did she fuss when I left with Lab Ellie. Such a sorry noise. Brought a tear to my eye. A small bunch of greenwing teal let us walk right up to them and I dropped a pair. The cripple gave Ellie the slip and she switched to the dead one. Made a nice retreive. Figured I'd hunt up the rest of the sloughs and go to other side on the way back to see if we could pick up the other duck. Heard a couple of honks on the far one and spent more than an hour in terrible thick brush and timber putting the sneak on them. But while we were maneuvering to get in range the flock swam to the far end a bit too close to a house so I left them. By then I was thoroughly drenched and temp was starting to drop. Had trouble getting my hands warm. Just glad to get out of that soggy slippery jungle without breaking a leg. On the return we caught the crippled teal out in the middle of first slough and I finished him with a goose load. Another fine retreive to hand. Then Ellie dang near caught a ruff grouse in a patch of willows at the edge of the tulies. He didn't go far in that downpour. Found it sitting in a small spruce and tried to shoot it in the head but missed. So nasty the poor thing refused to fly. And I refused to waste another 3" BB goose load. See ya.

Like I told my late wife after yet another disaster cheap motel experience on one of our road trips: "The misadventures are the adventures you never forget." Anyone care to share?